The Dark Knight Rises triumphs once again

David Konow, 10th August 2012

It's a given that The Dark Knight Rises, the last of the Christopher Nolan / Christian Bale Batman flicks, would do big business at the box office.

There's always pre-release speculation as to how big, especially with the runaway success of The Avengers, which is currently the third biggest box office champ of all time, and is sure to make a ton of more dough when it comes out on DVD / BluRay this September 25, but a world-wide take $732 million in three weeks sure isn’t chickenfeed.

As Entertainment Weekly notes, with The Dark Knight Rises earning $363.3 million domestic, it probably won't beat out The Dark Knight's U.S. take of $533.3 million, but it is also making big bucks overseas, with $378.4 million so far. And if you pay attention to the box office horse race, the overseas market is more important than ever for films, especially considering how much movies cost these days. (The Dark Knight Rises cost a reported $250 million).

All in, The Dark Knight Rises is projected to finish with $450 million U.S., and it may beat out The Dark Knight's world-wide take of $1.0 billion. Entertainment Weekly's report also didn't factor in what it could make when it's ready for home video, but that should be a nice haul as well. So again, while beating The Avengers is going to be a tough feat for any movie, #2's still a good place to be on this chart. Not to mention Rises is close to three hours, and if it was shorter, and could have been shown one more time a day, perhaps its box office take could have been even bigger. (Then again, Titanic lost a screening a day because of its length, and it obviously did just fine).

Other box office reports feel that the tragic shooting Colorado impacted ticket sales, how much we'll never know for sure, but I was glad to see in the Hollywood Reporter that several victims of the shooting showed up to the shooter's hearing wearing Batman shirts as a symbol of courage. It was also remarkable to read that one survivor of the shooting said he went back to see the movie twice, and of course he was scared the first time, but he's determined not to let it dominate his life.

Another Dark Knight story I found amusing is President Obama's recent reaction to the film. Anne Hathaway co-hosted a Washington fundraiser, and Obama had high praise for Catwoman, who turned out to be one of the best things about Rises. (A friend of mine feels it's essentially her film.) As Deadline reports, the Pres said, "She's spectacular. I got a chance to see Batman, and she was the best thing in it. That's just my personal opinion."